Mullah Omar

The Osama I remember

By Kamal Hyder in Asia on May 12th, 2011

Within years after Russian forces invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the US and Saudi Arabia sent in billions of dollars to help the mujahideen, or holy warriors, in their uphill struggle against Russian forces. As the battles for control of Afghanistan got under way, thousands of Arab and other foreign volunteers made a beeline for Pakistan to join the Afghan mujahideen and cross into Afghanistan to wage jihad against the brutal occupation of Afghanistan.

Tags: Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah Masood, bin Laden, Burhanuddin Rabbani, Mullah Omar, Osama, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Saudi intelligence, Taliban

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Pakistan: 'We are part of the solution in Afghanistan'

By Zeina Khodr in Asia on December 4th, 2010

Photo by Reuters

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani couldn't have been more blunt when he said a few weeks ago that: "Nothing can happen in Afghan peace talks with the Taliban without us. We are part of the solution. We are not part of the problem."

For some in Afghanistan, however, Pakistan is a part of the problem – blocking any attempt to find a political solution to the conflict that doesn't secure its strategic interests at home.

Last February, I was in Kabul when news of the arrest of the Taliban's Mullah Brader emerged. Second-in-command only to the Afghan Taliban’s supreme leader Mullah Omar, his capture in the Pakistani city of Karachi was described as a success.

In Afghanistan, government sources told us that it was a setback to peace efforts.

Mullah Brader was reportedly involved in secret negotiations with Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, albeit without Pakistan’s consent. His arrest was a clear message from Islamabad.